Since my neighborhood is still under construction (I'm the 3rd home completed) they don't have the cable service available yet. I called to ask when it would be available and they said end of February at the earliest.

So, it looks like I'll be going with Direct TV by default.

Any advice on getting the best deal possible?

Also, my HDTV is on back order for another month, but I want to get the HD-DVR. Should I get it now, and just hook it up to the new HDTV when it comes in? Will the HD-DVR work with my SDTV in the meantime?

so no initital investment, just a small fee every month.

The DVR is incredibly buggy and slow and has to reboot constantly (a reboot took about 30 minutes). Whenever I do go HD it'll be either with comcast or that new HD Tivo if it ever comes down in price.

It'll work fine for SDTV, too...

As far as best deal possible... there's not much negotiating to be done. Get as many free receivers as you can (if you need them.) Otherwise, you're looking at a 2 year contract, $299 for the HD-DVR, and their normal published prices for service.

not sure about a new customer though

runs to a multiswitch - that will feed your receivers.

Dual runs to each receiver will be so you do DVRs at each one.

but only because I'm an existing "A-list" customer

I got a free hd-dvr, another free hd receiver, free HD pkg for 6 months, free upgrade on my Sunday Ticket, a $20 credit for 6 months...a couple of other things.

Alas, I didn't like the box and went back to my SD tivo. I'll upgrade to HD Tivo in a few months when directv adds all those new HD channels.

cablecard or OTA

the rep said he was gonna do what he could to keep my as a customer. So I got the HD DVR for free along with some discounts.

which is fairly new

Either the AT-9 or the AU9-S

<img src="http://www.solidsignal.com/images/products/AT59_zoom.gif">

<img src="http://www.solidsignal.com/images/products/AU9-S_zoom.gif">

At some point in the next year, I am going to put a small flatscreen in my master bath. I don't need all the channels on this tv. Just the locals for news and such. There's already a cable drop in the room. With DirecTV does this tv need it's own receiver?

where are you gonna hide a big bulky receiver?

I use the HD outputs out of the receiver to feed the main TV it's hooked up to, then I use the coax output (or regular video -&gt; coax converter if your receiver doesn't provide coax out) to connect to the house coax wiring. That way I can connect a TV anywhere in the house and see the signal for that receiver. Of course it's not HD, but for small TV in a bathroom or kitchen do you really care?

The other part of this solution is being able to switch channels from anywhere in the house. Smarthome.com sells a kit that has an IR receiver you put next to your remote TV, it connects to a coax injector that adds the remote signal to your coax cable and then at the receiver end it has a coax splitter that reads that signal and uses IR blasters to control your receiver.

It works great provided you don't want to watch different channels on different TV at the same time and the only thing visible next to your remote TVs is a little IR reciever.

I guess I can just hook that tv up to an HD antenna and hope I get reception at my house.

from bedroom receiver/tv setup?

...you will be putting DTV setup for your master bedroom. and that your question was 'how to get a feed to a 2nd tv in bathroom?'

if that was the case, you could hook up more than one TV to a single receiver, it's just that they'd both be playing the same channel at any given time.